Decolonizing the classroom at John Abbott College – Montreal Gazette

August 30, 2017

It’s safe to speculate that the majority of Canadians with European roots know little about Indigenous culture and even less about life here before the first European settlers arrived.

Last fall, John Abbott College humanities teacher Debbie Lunny and six other teachers formed the Decolonizing Pedagogies Group (DPG) to work on ways to help better sensitize teachers to the Indigenous reality in this county and how teachers might present elements of the curriculum through an Indigenous lens.

The teachers looked at how we live a life shaped by the “settler” mindset, applying our hard-wired European template to every aspect of our existence. Over the last years, Lunny has witnessed the fact, repeatedly.

“I will start a lecture by asking the students to write down the name of their favourite Indigenous writer or artist,” Lunny said. “The non-Indigenous students end up looking around, uncomfortable. The hardest part of my course for non-Indigenous students is to come to terms with living in a society where huge injustices occurred. It’s very disturbing.”